Tea Party laying blame; ought to look at itself first

A great deal went wrong in the Presidential election, to the point where some of us over here were reminded of the 1993 when opposition leader John Hewson lost what was regarded as the unlosable election.  Given the sluggish economy, joblessness, high energy prices, the massive wastage on green energy and stimulus, as well as a 50% increase in debt, by any objective measure the GOP should have romped home and taken the Senate as well.

While Americans are probably the best people to judge the reasons for the failure of the Republican campaign, a couple of things stood out from over here.

The first was the extraordinary negativity of the GOP primary contest.  In the US politics are played rough, but with the possible exceptions of Ron Paul, Huntsman, Cain, and Johnson, who tended to present positive views and solutions, the candidates seemed to concentrate on trying to win by mortally wounding all others.  By the time it was over the Democrats didn’t need to dig for dirt; it was handed to them along with a proven test bed of what was most effective.

The second was the treatment of the Ron Paul crowd.  Ron has an incredible appeal to younger voters given his age and pulled some respectable tallies in the primaries.  The idea of giving Romney the right to replace his delegates at the convention was totally wrong headed on every level.  Had they contested the nomination on the floor of the convention they would have lost, but at least they would have been treated with respect.  The GOP’s action basically told them that they were unwanted and it’s a fair bet most of them stayed home on the day.

Republicans can consider themselves lucky that Paul did not respond by endorsing Johnson.

 Now Jenny Beth Martin, the National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots has weighed in by blaming Romney and the ‘establishment’ for the loss: 

“What we got was a weak moderate candidate, hand-picked by the Beltway elites and country-club establishment wing of the Republican Party.  The Presidential loss is unequivocally on them.  “While it might take longer to restore America’s founding principles with President Obama back in office, we are not going away. 

“With the catastrophic loss of the Republican elite’s hand-picked candidate – the tea party is the last best hope America has to restore America’s founding principles. …

While Romney may have been less than perfect, he was not the entire problem.  The Tea Party itself has some weight to bear in the loss, which can be summed up in two words, Akin and Mourdock.  These two social conservatives were not only by their idiocy able to lose certain GOP winning positions, but in doing so managed to damage the prospects of many other candidates.

Akin was the weakest of three challengers in Missouri who led sitting unpopular Senator Claire McCaskill in polling before the primary.  With Tea Party support he was able to win the primary over better and saner contestants.  He immediately made his incredibly stupid statement on female bodies having a resistance to getting pregnant in cases of ‘legitimate rape’.  This is not only wrong but suggests that if a woman gets pregnant it is evidence that she was not really raped.

Just to double up on total stupidity, the Tea Party decided to replace Dick Lugar with Richard Mourdock who then insisted that pregnancies resulting from rape were a ‘gift from God’ and were not grounds for abortion.  Dick may have been old and not quite what the Tea partiers wanted, but at least he was not stupid enough to make a comment of that nature.

  In one fell swoop, the Tea party not only caused the loss of a safe seat, but lost a certain pick-up.  This though is not the worst of it.  The Dems were able to use these two idiots to beat the saner GOP candidates around the heads with and no doubt caused the loss of a number of contests, which were close.  While the Presidential race was not that close, there were a number of states that might have gone the other way had these fools not been given their day in the sun.

While it is reasonable to argue that it was not possible to assess that these idiots were quite that bloody stupid, it seems reasonable to think that more effort to vet these people was in order, given the critical nature of the contest.  Where the Hell do they find these people?

US election, the Johnson factor

Republicans have been extremely sensitive about the entry of Governor Gary Johnson into the race as the Libertarian Party nominee.  Neither of the majors has any liking for third party candidates, but the idea of one who has qualified as a successful two term Governor, in other words, has more executive experience than either major party Nominee is a nightmare scenario for them.

The GOP though, has been the one that has attempted to place legal roadblocks in his way in every state possible with little success.  Johnson is on the ballot in 48 states and has write-in status in another.  It is worth speculating as to whether he is such a serious threat, as they seem to think.

 In winning New Mexico as Governor he had to overcome a 2 – 1 electoral disadvantage in favour of the Donks, then was re-elected for a second term.  This indicates that he is pretty good at pulling Democrat voters, something he is likely to emulate this time around.  Humble Libertarian brought out some interesting points in an interview with him:

A curious thing about Johnson’s candidacy is that if you are not a libertarian – but you are liberal who believes in basic civil rights, the right to due process, personal privacy, an unregulated Internet, a peaceful foreign policy, marriage equality, and an end to crony corporatism and pro-wall street policy-making, for example, then Johnson – not Obama – is much closer to you on policy, but you’ll probably vote for Obama. Similarly, if you are a conservative who believes in the Constitution, small government, free markets, balanced budgets and the Fed out of huge areas of your personal and economic life that could be better handled by yourself or even the States, then Johnson – not Romney – is much closer to you on policy, but you’ll probably vote for Romney. 

If you do vote for Romney or Obama, you probably have no clue who Gary Johnson is. … 

… Johnson is not a purist. He is a pragmatist, and he says as much – often. As he says, “I think libertarians need somebody who can articulate getting from A to Z. But you know, if G is achievable, how about it? Let’s get there!” …

The Republicans are energized this time around, while many of the other side have seen their hopes dashed.  Little has changed other than the national debt rising by around 50% in four years.  Unemployment is endemic, the economy is a disaster, trillions of dollars have been wasted, and Americans have just watched Muslims burn an embassy and kill their Ambassador to celebrate 9/11 while the US armed forces had to stand by impotently.

Johnson has none of the social intolerance fear factors of the Republicans to frighten liberals.  On the other hand he has no problem with issues like gay marriage, and has actively campaigned for legalization of marijuana, an area where many liberals thought that Obama would shine like a beacon until in the aftermath of the 2008 election he turned out to be the most obsessive drug war warrior ever.

Best guess; The Dems will lose a lot of votes to Johnson who has been quietly outflanking them from the left.  They have been so certain and complacent about him being a Republican problem, they have failed to see the threat of being ‘Nadered’ again.    

Queensland electricity charges; be grateful Newman doesn’t provide your baked beans

Governments should stay out of any activity that could be carried out by the free enterprise system, especially business ventures.  They simply have no talent for it, and little understanding of how it works.  The Newman government is a shining example of this with its review of electricity charges across the state.

In the name of reform, the government is about to divide the total cost of electricity infrastructure spending by the number of households in the state and charge that as a fixed cost with each bill.  This is a similar system to that used by many local authorities for water, whereby landholders are charged a water rate for any bock they own in the reticulation area even if it is not actually connected: 

After promising cost-of-living relief, the Newman Government will reform electricity tariffs to ensure prices fully reflect production costs.  In a radical departure from the current system, households face a massive spike in fixed electricity costs - before even turning on a switch. 

It comes in exchange for a lower variable cents-per-kilowatt rate on the common household tariff.  Under the current capped price, households pay 23 cents per kilowatt with fixed charges of about $95 annually. 

Modelling based on current power costs shows the c/kWh would fall to 20 cents but the fixed charge will increase to $287 annually. 

A family using 10,000 kWh would save about $100 a year. However, a small household using 2000 kWh would pay in excess of $130 more without using any extra electricity.The fixed component of future bills will represent the average price of distributing electricity to every household, the so-called "poles and wires' businesses which make up about half of total electricity costs. 

Bigger households, who are effectively subsidising other users under the current system, would get some relief from the reform.  However, smaller households with lower levels of consumption will feel the effect.

Under a free enterprise model, a business manufacturing or providing a product to market prices each unit of product to cover the cost of building the factory, acquiring the raw materials, manufacturing, and distributing it into the market, plus some profit.  Under this system you pay the infrastructure cost in proportion to the quantity of product purchased, - user pays.

Were Campbell Newman and his crowd to take over the baked bean market in the state, purchasers would pay a price for the production of each can which would be considerably lower than the present cost.  On the other hand each household in the state would receive a bill for their share of the ongoing cost of building and expanding the enterprise, even if they only eat spaghetti.

The idea that bigger users of electricity are effectively subsidizing smaller users is as silly as it would be to suggest that someone using ten cans of baked beans is subsidising those who only use two.  Where did they find someone like Energy Minister Mark McArdle who comes up with such imbecilic collectivist claptrap?

There was a joke around about a guy who stayed overnight at a government hotel.  On checking out in the morning he finds a surcharge of $500.00 on his bill for prostitution.  When he complains that he didn’t use any prostitute he is told, “Yes but she was available had you wished to.”  We should all be grateful Newman is not in the hotel business as well.

Smallest mainstream political rally ever

Speakers   Check
Lights        Check
Cameras    Check
Action       Check
Crowd       Oops

Libertarian Republican reports on a rally that was Anti-Romney, Anti-Scott Brown in Worcester, Massachusetts: 


Eric reports:

You will be amazed. At first it seems rather exciting, lots of support for Elizabeth Warren, as bigtime local politicians put on a great show in support for the Democrat Senate nominee. Then... the camera pans around. There is nobody, nada, zilch, niente, in attendance, with the exception of a few reporters and scattered campaign aides. (Maybe 3 genuine people if you count the one guy walking past on the street?) Way to go Dems.

The Libertarian, Constitutional, or Greens Parties could be excused for this owing to small organisation, low budget, or inexperience.  For a major party to screw up like this is unbelievable.

HRC investigator limited to only Israeli ‘violations’

Image: Richard Falk, the U.N.’s “special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories. (Looks like a right little bundle of joy)

The UN HRC current investigator for human rights in the Palestinian territories professor emeritus of international law Richard Falk (Princeton) has made a call for an international boycott of a number of US and European companies for trading with Israel.  Israel tends to be a big focus for the HRC with something close to 50% of disparaging resolutions from it being focussed on what is essentially a small nation in the Middle East: 

Dominated by countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Libya, the HRC is known to be hostile toward Israel. For this reason, the Bush Administration refused to take part in the HRC, yet the Obama administration has fully participated.  

The HRC is calling for "legal and economic warfare" on Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard, because these companies refuse to quit doing business with Israel. Companies in Europe targeted for boycott include Volvo, the Dexia Group, and Group 4 Security. 

The Obama-approved HRC keeps an investigator who monitors so-called violations of "human rights" by Israelis in "the Palestinian territories." … 

The latest report from the HRC attempts to frighten companies into anti-Israel compliance by warning that individual employees of Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett-Packard may be targeted if the pressure on company execs does not succeed.

Some of the unblinkered thinkers in society tend to notice that human rights violations are not strictly one-sided in that region.  Some notice the tendency of terrorist groups to fire rockets and conduct raids into Israeli towns aiming to kill civilians and wonder why only Israel is called to account for its response. It turns out, that only Israeli actions are to be investigated: 

Reporter Benny Avni of the New York Post took Falk to task for solely focusing on Israeli actions in the West Bank, while he ignored Palestinian violations of human rights. 

“You are charged with the responsibility to judge Israel’s behavior in the occupied territories, but your title is special rapporteur of the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” Avni said. 

“As such have you noticed during your travels to the region any violation of human rights by the Palestinian Authority that is controlling most of the cities in the West Bank, and even more so by Hamas that controls all of Gaza? “Do you think that the last three days of [rocket] attacks from Gaza into Israel constitute any human rights violations?” Avni asked. 

Falk responded that this mandate limited him to Israeli violations in the occupied territories. …

This on its own demonstrates extreme and extraordinary bias, but the selection of an investigator indicates a total disinterest on behalf of the UNHRC in even appearing to be unbiased.  Falk is a 9/11 truther who claims that senior US officials are culpable for what happened, and has accused Israel of actions comparable with the Nazi regime.  His prejudice is so extreme, that Israeli authorities don’t even bother to let him into the country, as it would only vindicate his attitudes.

The support that the US offers for this organisation by membership of it is a sign of weakness.

Wind and Solar are Worse than Coal and cause the waste of gas. (Part Two)

BY Viv Forbes

"Carbon Sense" 


Common sense on carbon, food, energy and climate.



We are told we must replace coal powered electricity with wind and solar, 
because of the “dangerous carbon dioxide” produced when coal is burnt. 
But a bit of investigation shows that carbon dioxide is a benefit to the biosphere, 
whereas wind and solar do real damage to the environment and the economy.

 IMAGE Tehachapi Pass Wind Farms - 5,000 turbines cover virtually every ridgeline in the mountain pass between the Mojave Desert and California’s Central Valley. Source 

Finally, both wind and solar farms produce zero or negligible power for at least 60% of the time. Thus they need 100% backup to avoid power failures. These backup facilities sterilise more land, and often need to be on “spinning reserve” in order to be instantly ready when clouds hide the sun or the wind fails at a time of peak demand. This additional construction causes more environmental harm and massively increases the cost of green electricity.

IMAGE Wind Power means investing in Two Sets of Generators, with Two Land Footprints, in order to guarantee the Same Supply Cartoon Credit: Steve Hunter

In this way both wind and solar energy affect far more land per unit of energy generated than a compact coal mine and its nearby linked power station. 

Finally, what about gas? The carbon tax and the green war on coal and carbon dioxide have artificially boosted gas in preference to coal for generating electricity. This is generally a misallocation of resources. Gas is a very useful carbon fuel, but is generally too valuable to burn for generating electricity. It also needs to be gathered from a far bigger area than coal, creating more surface disturbance for a network of wells, pipelines, roads and waste water containment dams. In a sensible world, industrial electricity would be generated mainly by low-cost hydro, geothermal, coal or nuclear, with some gas for variable peak loads. Gas is more useful as fuel for mobile equipment, it provides a cleaner transport fuel in cities than petrol or diesel, and is invaluable for petrochemicals, fertilisers and plastics. Gas is surely being wasted providing backup for the token wind and solar plants being built.

They complained about the coal mine,

So we gave them 500 gas wells.


They complained about the gas wells,

So we gave them 5,000 wind turbines.


But then the wind failed, and their lights went out,

And now they wish they had stuck with the coal mine.

Viv Forbes

The conclusions are obvious – political force-feeding of wind and solar energy does more harm to the natural environment than coal, affects the local climate, hits consumers with unnecessary costs and threatens industry with power failures.

Solar is sensible for domestic hot water, powering small remote facilities and re-charging portable batteries. Wind power is sometimes useful for pumping water and generating power in remote locations. Consumers should be free to choose and pay for whatever energy they prefer, for whatever reason. However, wind and solar both produce costly intermittent power and should never be subsidised or mandated as a primary source of industrial electricity.

Further Reading: 

James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate alarmists and leader of the war on coal says: “Coal is the single greatest threat to civilisation and all life on our planet. The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains. Coal-fired power plants are factories of death.” See:

“The Greens have said very clearly: no new coalmines, no extension of existing coalmines; let's invest in renewables - the technology exists," Senator Milne. See:

Last weekend as blizzards swept across Europe, and over three hundred people died, Russia's main gas-company, Gazprom, was unable to meet demand. Did anyone even think of deploying our wind turbines to make good the energy shortfall from Russia?

Of course not. We all know that windmills are a self-indulgent and sanctimonious luxury whose purpose is to make us feel good. Had Europe genuinely depended on green energy on Friday, by Sunday thousands would be dead from frostbite and exposure, and the EU would have suffered an economic body blow to match that of Japan's tsunami a year ago. See:

Lies, Damn Lies and Green Statistics. Almost all predictions about the expansion and cost of German wind turbines and solar panels have turned out to be wrong – at least by a factor of two, sometimes by a factor of five. --Daniel Wentzel, Die Welt, 20 October 2012:


Large-scale exploitation of wind energy will inevitably leave an imprint in the atmosphere.  Although the winds will not die, sucking that much energy out of the atmosphere may change precipitation and turbulence and have a climate effect as big as a doubling of the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere. See: 

Spanish wind farms kill 6 to 18 million birds & bats a year. See:

Maryland wind farm ranks as the most deadly to birds and bats in USA. See:

The only sustainable population of whooping cranes in the wild is declining, concurrently with the invasion of their migration route, the Central Flyway, by over 2,000 wind turbines and their power lines. Nearly one hundred of these critically-endangered birds were lost this year. See:

Residents as far as 10km from the nearest wind turbine are affected by infra-sound and low frequency noise from the turbine. Unable to live in their homes, and unable to sell them, they become homeless “wind farm refugees”See:


Look how well wind turbines burn: 


Peak production from solar panels in Australia occurs at noon. Peak annual demand on the power grid occurs at 6.30pm in mid-winter, after the sun goes down. Therefore solar panels contribute ZERO to supplying peak demand. See:

The cost of renewable energy for Australia is explained here:

The products of combustion of all carbon fuels are normal and natural components of the atmosphere, and essential nutrients for all life. This paper looks at the compositions of solid carbon fuels, the process of coal combustion, the exhaust products produced, and the benefits and pollution potential of those exhaust products. See:


An increase of 300ppm in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere (currently about 395ppm) would cause an increased growth in food plants of about 40% and trees of about 70%. See:

CO2 is essential for life. More CO2 will do much good and no harm. If it is allowed to increase at the current rate it will feed the world’s coming peak population without needing more land, seed, cultivation or water. For a beautifully illustrated article on the many benefits of carbon dioxide for the all life see:

IMAGE  clean coal

NJ Governor praises Obama; big union keeps volunteers out

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is under fire for being ‘too effusive’ in thanking President Obama for the disaster response in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.  The closeness of the election seems to be making everybody twitchy about partisanship at present. Rupert Murdoch has even criticized him for calling Bloomberg’s decision to cancel the NY marathon a good decision.

In any disaster, it is a leadership function of a President to visit the areas involved and show concern or the appearance of it for the victims, thank those who are actually doing something to help, and to offer support.  It is standard for the Governor involved to show him around and a courtesy to thank him.  It is a bit over the top to criticise this.

Meanwhile Newsbusters is reporting that even some of the left wing media are mentioning angry residents criticising the responses as sluggish.  More disturbing though, are reports of unions in parts of New Jersey refusing to allow non-union volunteers from other states assist in repairing the electrical system: 

… Utility crews from several states East of the Mississippi River hit the road this week to volunteer their time and talents in Northeastern states hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. But crews from Alabama got the shock of their lives when other workers in a coastal New Jersey town told them they couldn’t lend a hand without a union card. 

Derrick Moore, who works for Decatur Utilities in Decatur, Ala., told WAFF-TV in Huntsville that crews in Seaside Heights, N.J. turned him and his crewmates away, saying they couldn’t do any work there because they’re not union employees.  As a result, crews from Decatur and Huntsville left the Jersey shore and headed to Long Island to pitch in. … 

… Electric repair work for public utilities in New Jersey is dominated by the International Brotherhood Of Electrical Workers, a unit of the politically powerful AFL-CIO.  Many parts of coastal New Jersey are projected to be without electric power for at least seven to 10 more days.

Unlike here where power supply is heavily controlled or owned by government, The US has numerous suppliers and these appear to have reciprocal arrangements for assisting each other in these events.  This makes sense and demonstrates the way mutual cooperation works within the free enterprise system.

Big union though, is demonstrating the opposite.  Rather than working together with interstate counterparts to restore services as quickly as possible, these outfits are claiming some sort of ownership rights over residents and the grid, insisting it be a case of union, or no power.  This is where collectivism leads.